Raymond Hoser was dropped as a child. As a consequence he's always been a bit "strange". His first word that he spoke was quite appropriately, "Snake". Instead of saying "dadda" and "mumma" as a baby, he said "Adder" and "Mamba" and so the dye was cast!

He kept reptiles as soon as he was able to walk into the garden and find them, and by school age had a house full. He didn't discriminate between species and even at primary school was leading the world in his breeding of rare and dangerously venomous snakes.

In 1973 the Australian government banned private ownership of reptiles, but even at age 11, Raymond Hoser's expertise was unrivalled and so he soon was armed with some of the first "scientific permits" ever issued to anyone, which allowed him to be one of the very few Australians to be keeping and researching live reptiles. His countless books, scientific papers and the like spanning decades are the benchmark publications of Australian herpetology.

More significantly, Hoser courageously waged a one-man campaign to overturn draconian laws banning private ownership of reptiles and this culminated in the publications of his "Smuggled" books in 1993 and 1996, which between them led to a total overturning of the laws banning private individuals from keeping reptiles as pets. As a result of Hoser's actions, reptile keeping is a booming hobby in Australia. Anyone with a pet snake or lizard can thank just one man for having this right, and it's Raymond Hoser.

Following publication of Smuggled in 1993 several people commenced reptile education shows, but these were generally amateurish and always "hands off" in that the public were never allowed to handle or hold the reptiles. So to fill an obvious need for proper hands on reptiles education, Raymond Hoser set-up Snakebusters reptile shows in 2003. Less experienced rivals setting up business in about 2006 and 2007 have demonized hands on reptile shows and made a swag of false claims about these, non-existent risks and the like, to shore up their own enterprises. To stop bootleggers, Raymond Hoser registered the trademarks, "hands on reptiles" and alternatives because he was able to show that not only was his company "Snakebusters" the only people who did this, but that all his competitors were violently opposed to the concept of "hands on reptiles" and hence would never want to use the words for their promotion. Scandalously, since then a few imitators have since then claimed "hands on" in marketing when all they do is allow people a fleeting touch of the snake or lizard. To stop customers being duped or lied to, Snakebusters now actively enforce trademark rights to protect the public from these dishonest people. Snakebusters®, Snakeman®, snake man®, snakebuster®, Australia's best reptiles®, hands on reptiles® and variants all accurately describe our business.
They are also registered trademarks unauthorised for which use is forbidden and illegal under various laws. The Snakebusters trademarks rights include for: